Professor Percy George Hamnall Boswell (7 August 1886 – 22 December 1960) was a British geologist.

Biography

Boswell was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk, the son of printer George James Boswell of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

and Mary Elizabeth (''née'') Marshall) of

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. He developed an early interest in geology while at school in Ipswich through fossil collecting and visiting local museums. As a teen he founded the Ipswich and District Field Club, which led to his election to as a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1907. However, possibly as a result of his explorations, he developed

choroiditis Chorioretinitis is an inflammation of the choroid (thin pigmented vascular coat of the eye) and retina of the eye. It is a form of posterior uveitis. If only the choroid is inflamed, not the retina, the condition is termed choroiditis. The ophthalm ...

in both his eyes at 18 and nearly went blind; he never fully regained sight in his right eye. After earning his Bachelor of Science at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

, Boswell continued at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, studying at the Royal College of Science and the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

under

William Whitehead Watts Prof William Whitehead Watts FRS HFRSE FGS FMS LLD (7 June 1860 – 30 July 1947) was a British geologist. Life He was born near Broseley in Shropshire, the eldest of two sons of Isaac Watts, but then a music master, and his wife, Maria Whitehea ...

. He joined the Royal College in 1914 as a demonstrator in geology but left three years later to become the first George Herdman chair of Geology at Liverpool University. Boswell was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the

1918 Birthday Honours The 1918 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, 3 June a ...

for his work during the Great War, as Geological Adviser to the Ministry of Munitions. During the war, he investigated British supplies of moulding sands for use in metal foundries and ultimately became "a recognized authority as a sedimentary petrologist." In 1930, he returned as a professor to London University. He spent several decades working as an adviser for the

Metropolitan Water Board The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functi ...

on the matter of the falling

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

under London. His work as a geologist covered many aspects, but according to his obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', his best contributions were possibly concerning recent geology of East Anglia, "where he was a pioneer in making sense of the stratigraphy of the area with its record of alternate advances and retreats of ice." He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in May 1931 and was president of the Geological Society of London from 1940 to 1941. In 1934, he visited Africa to validate

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

's claim that he had found fossil remains of ''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

'' more than 100,000 years old and publicly disagreed with Leakey's conclusions. He died in

Ruthin Ruthin ( ; cy, Rhuthun) is a market town and community in Denbighshire, Wales, in the south of the Vale of Clwyd. It is Denbighshire's county town. The town, castle and St Peter's Square lie on a hill, skirted by villages such as Pwllglas and ...

, Wales, in 1960.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boswell, Percy George Hamnall 1886 births 1960 deaths 20th-century British geologists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Geological Society of London Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Woodbridge, Suffolk Academics of the University of Liverpool Academics of University College London